(Santa Fe, NM)— Amistad Charter School, a K-6
rural school in the Clayton School District, has achieved the K-8
Official Core Knowledge Visitation status. This status recognizes
the commitment of the school to create and implement a rich curriculum
aligned to both the New Mexico Content Standards and Benchmarks and
the Core Knowledge Foundation's Cultural Literacy Sequence. Amistad
was the only New Mexico charter school, and among four elementary
public schools from New Mexico to receive this recognition.

As an official visitation site, Amistad Charter School will obtain
on-site training and assistance from Core Knowledge Foundation staff
in reviewing and aligning state standards and assessments with the
topics included in the Core Knowledge Sequence. They will develop
a yearlong plan to ensure that content and skills are taught prior
to state testing, and they will create a pacing structure that helps
lesson planning.

Studies indicate that a Core Knowledge education can improve students’
scores on standardized tests and also narrow the achievement gap between
advantaged and disadvantaged students. Studies also indicate that
Core Knowledge may have certain latent positive effects on student
achievement.

At the Core Knowledge Conference in Philadelphia in
early March, Amistad presented a unit plan on "Cells" that
they developed and had already shared with the Wagon Mound Elementary
School. (Wagon Mound is a school in need of improvement that Amistad
already works with as part of the Charter School Dissemination Grant.)
Charter School Dissemination Grants are federally funded and provide
money to an existing charter school that can help spread best practices
either to another charter school or another regular public school.